Xiuhcoatl - Swordtember 2022

This is one of the highlights from my Swordtember 2022 challenge hosted by Tim Kaminski. Each day, I worked to create a sculpted and textured sword inspired by a single word prompt. This prompt was "mythological", and my for this project I was inspired by the Aztec myth of Xiuhcoatl, a fire serpent deity often represented in the form of a weapon.

I took the color palette from traditional Aztec artistic motifs, adapted the design of contemporary sculptures of Xiuhcoatl, and modeled the shape of his body after an Egyptian khopesh with embedded obsidian blades along his spine. The animation was from Mixamo, with modifications to make it fit the unique body shape.

Sword modeled in Maya, sculpted in Zbrush, and textured in Substance Painter. Lit/rendered in Marmoset Toolbag 4.